Content & The Inbox – Notes from About.com’s George DiGuido

While digital marketing is ubiquitous, it’s still quite a small world. We were psyched to see a digital marketing leader and our client, About.com’s George DiGuido, on the docket to speak at Inbox Awesome. Here are a few takeaways that we loved:

1) If you didn’t know, About.com is the 14th largest site on the internet. They drive 100 million monthly intent-driven consumers to their site; have over 3.5 million unique pieces of content; create more than 4,000 unique pages of content every month. They’re kind of a big deal.

2) About.com sends to more than 150 user lists every day and the key driver for the email volume is user retention. Email is critical for About.com to increase the frequency in which users go onsite.

3) When someone raises their hand and says “yes, I’m interested in your content!” get them engaged immediately through the right welcome email series. Make sure that you’re setting expectations in the initial email so that users know what to expect.

4) Be vigilant about deliverability. About.com works with Sailthru to ensure that deliverability is high because “your content can be the greatest in the world, but it doesn’t matter if it doesn’t get to your inbox.”

5) Test your approach to the total content structure. At About.com, their users want information. They want content. So it makes sense for About.com’s emails to be very content-rich, while still maintaining balance between copy and creative. To continually make optimizations, they’re looking to analytics to reveal the approach that nets the highest incremental increase in pageviews over the long haul, not just in the short term.

6) Have a driven philosophy behind your content. Every interaction with your consumers is an opportunity to share content that tells your brand story, so make sure that the content that is driving these engagements is supported by a bigger picture philosophy that aligns to your brand and meets user needs.

We’re looking forward to seeing how About.com continues to grow and innovate. #clientlove

—

Jason Grunberg is the Senior Content Marketing Manager at Sailthru, and a veteran in marketing, advertising, and content for more than 12 years.